American Therapy: The Rise of Psychotherapy in the United States - Softcover

Engel, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 159240491X ISBN 13: 9781592404919

Publisher: Avery, 2009

Synopsis

From Freud to Zoloft, the first comprehensive history of American psychotherapy.

Fifty percent of Americans will undergo some form of psychotherapy in their lifetimes, but the origins of the field are rarely known to patients. Yet the story of psychotherapy in America brims with colorful characters, intriguing experimental treatments, and intense debates within this community of healers.

American Therapy begins, as psychotherapy itself does, with the monumental figure of Sigmund Freud. The book outlines the basics of Freudian theory and discusses the peculiarly powerful influence of Freud on the world of American mental health. It then moves through the emergence of group therapy, the rise of psychosurgery, the evolution of uniquely American therapies such as Gestalt, rebirthing, and primal scream therapy, and concludes with the modern world of psychopharmacology, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and highly targeted short-term therapies.

For a counseled nation that freely uses terms such as “emotional baggage” and no longer stigmatizes mental health care, American Therapy is a remarkable history of an extraordinary enterprise.

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Engel holds a Ph.D. in the history of science and medicine from Yale, and has written extensively about the historical development of U.S. medicine and health policy. His previous books are Doctors and Reformers: Discussion and Debate Over Health Policy 1925-1950, Poor People’s Medicine: Medicaid and American Charity Care Since 1965, and The Epidemic: A Global History of AIDS. A professor of health care policy and management at Seton Hall University, he lives in New Jersey.

From Publishers Weekly

Since 50% of Americans will reportedly undergo some form of psychotherapy in their lifetimes, Engel, a professor of health care policy and management at Seton Hall University, presents a complete survey of the 100-year-old history of American mental health practitioners. Tracing the rise and decline of psychoanalysis in America (including the pioneering theories of homegrown talents Harry Stack Sullivan and Karen Horney), and its replacement by other, more targeted forms of therapy, this book notes that mental health treatment has become intensely consumer-oriented, tailored to finicky patients and leading to a variety of therapies such as Gestalt, rebirthing, primal scream therapy and medications like Prozac and Zoloft (though the discussion of medications fails to do justice to their complexities). Engel (The Epidemic: A Global History of AIDS) touts community mental health facilities and new progress in treatments and drugs to control addictions and mental instability. Highly informative, if a bit textbookish in tone, this is a capable introduction to the ever-changing American mental health industry and its practitioners. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Nov.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Avery
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 159240491X
• ISBN 13: 9781592404919
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368